Monday, June 26, 2006

Good Knight, going not so gently

You can’t blame Tony Ridder for shedding a tear as his semi-eponymous company formalized its forced sale to McClatchy Newspapers.

The liquidation of Knight Ridder represents not only the end of a once-proud publishing company but also the passing of life-as-most-of-us-would-have-liked-it-to-remain for the newspaper business. Or does it?

Availing myself the other night of the free, full-length, movie “Big News” at Google Video, I marveled at how far technology has come since 1929, when the talkie was filmed in an appropriately seedy simulated newsroom filled with clacking prehistoric typewriters.

Given the herky-jerky download of the video, it was perversely satisfying to know that things actually haven’t come as far as we think. As I determinedly stuck with the sputtering video, I was further comforted to see that at least one thing hasn't changed a lick since 1929, viz:

“I am sick of this bum racket,” the star reporter, played by Robert Armstrong, raged at his editor in an early scene. “What are newspapers good for, anyhow? Two-minute scandals for a lot of dumb Polacks that can’t even read English. And what are they good for after that? Something to put under carpets, plugs for rat holes, wrapping paper for bootleggers, bed quilts for bums in the park and a lot of other things.”

Minus the politically incorrect Polack crack, Armstrong’s rant would be quite at home in any newsroom today.

Needless to say, our hero bags a big scoop, regains his job and reclaims the affection of his significant other.

Let's hope today's newsfolk will continue to do as well.

Robert Armstrong (left) jousts with editor played by Charles Sellon in "Big News."

About Me

Alan D. Mutter is perhaps the only CEO in Silicon Valley who knows how to set type one letter at a time.
Mutter began his career as a newspaper columnist and editor at the Chicago Daily News and later rose to City Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1984, he became No. 2 editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
He left the newspaper business in 1988 to join InterMedia Partners, a start-up that became one of the largest cable-TV companies in the U.S.
Mutter was the COO of InterMedia when he moved to Silicon Valley in 1996 to join the first of the three start-up companies he led as CEO.
The companies he headed were a pioneering Internet service provider and two enterprise-software companies.
Mutter now is a consultant specializing in corporate initiatives and new media ventures involving journalism and technology. He ordinarily does not write about clients or subjects that will affect their interests. In the rare event he does, this will be fully disclosed.
Mutter also is on the adjunct faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.